"You couldn't beat it for pluck!" said Fred.
"And that's how you won the medal?" broke in Andy. "Fine!"
"You certainly deserved it," added his twin. "Gee! but suppose those Huns had plugged you when you were carrying the fellow!"
"And that's how I got him back to the trenches," went on Dick Rover. "He was taken to the field hospital, and there his injuries were found to be slight, and in a few days he was back on the firing line again."
"He ought to have been mighty thankful," declared Martha, who sat close by, holding her father's hand.
"He was thankful; and for that reason he did something which may have an important bearing on my future business dealings," answered Dick Rover. "He said he had no relatives of any kind, and he then and there made a will whereby if anything happened to him all that he possessed in this world should go to me."
"And then he was killed?" questioned Mrs. Rover.
"Yes. Just two days after his return to duty we were making another advance. Spell was in one part of the field while I was in another. Suddenly I saw him running off to a place just in front of where our squad was located. Then he made a turn as if to come toward us, and just at that instant he threw up his hands and fell forward on his face."
Here Dick Rover paused and dropped his eyes. No one cared to speak, and for an instant there was utter silence.
"When the skirmish was over we had gained our position, and a few hours later the body of Lorimer Spell was picked up and carried to the rear," went on Jack's father. "A bullet had struck him in the back of the head, and death must have been instantaneous.